In 2018, the cost of feeding a child at school for a whole year is still a snip at just £13.90. Mary's Meals is now providing school meals to well over a million children, in some of the world's poorest communities. As seen in the window of a cafe in Lilongwe, Malawi:
"If you think education is expensive - try ignorance."
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Friday, 13 July 2012

On the far side of
Rassypnoye, crossing a small river over which terns sailed gracefully to and
fro, i accepted an offer of a lift from three young guys, returning from a
fishing trip. The driver had hunted wolves, and reiterated the threat they
pose, saying there were “a lot” of them about, as we motored along a track
which became increasingly muddy and un-navigable. On three separate occasions
in fact, in an extraordinary procedure, the two passengers got out, changed
into their fishing waders, and pushed the car through extended stretches of
virtual swamp – the only way to get a vehicle without caterpillar tracks
through that mire. I didn’t feel bad about this, until they let on that they
were taking me along that road specially! They dropped me with only a short
distance to Krasnaya Polyana where, cutting rather an odd figure with my poncho
in the drizzly rain, a policeman stopped me and summoned me back to the nearby
station. Here i was asked to sit in the back of a nice dry car where i was soon
joined by a colleague of his, in plain clothes. We had a pleasant conversation,
in which i gathered that the danger from wolves had receded in this
neighbourhood, but he asked if i knew about ticks, the bloodthirsty little
arachnids which transmit sometimes life-threatening maladies. Of the
non-lethal, but nonetheless debilitating types of infection, perhaps the best
known is Lyme disease. More dangerous is a virus called Crimean–Congo
hemorrhagic fever.[1]
Another delightful example is tularemia, caused by a bacterium highly prized in
the field of biological warfare. I confessed i hadn’t given them any thought,
and privately assumed they’d be quite infrequent, as they are in Britain, but
it was just as well to be on my guard. He took me to Krasnaya Polyana’s cafe,
where i enjoyed a brew while he tried pulling some strings to find me a place
to stay, but this turned out to be impossible. He did however drive me a few
kilometres to the start of a cross-country track, a short cut to the main road
east. Contending with very wet and muddy shoes, when i came within sight of the
road i decided to reconnoitre a little abandoned outhouse, and set about
blocking up the door and windows; “I’ll huff, and i’ll puff, and i’ll blow your
house down” was the refrain which came to mind. Very useful for this purpose
was a decrepit old bed; the woolly filling of its worn-out mattress was also
good for drying out my boots and getting a decent night’s sleep. I only hope
that a brood of swallows in the rafters was not unduly flustered by my
intrusion.

There was more rain on the morning of Friday
13th May, dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima, so when a fellow in a
minibus pulled over and asked if i’d like a lift, i said ‘Yes please’. We drove
for half an hour or so to a town called Gorodovikovsk, inside an enclave of the
Republic (within Russia) of Kalmykia, where i was amazed to see a majority of
Chinese-looking locals. Picking up passengers of both ‘Caucasoid’ and
‘Mongoloid’ ethnicities we headed south to the Stavropol Region,[2]
no one minding, when the driver asked them, the idea of my getting a free ride.
On the journey discussion ranged from the pilgrimage, to soviet schooling, and the
relative abilities of Russian footballers in the English Premier League. More
important though was the fact that Russia had just defeated arch-foes Canada in
the Ice Hockey World Championship quarter-final in Slovakia, recovering from
1:0 down to emerge 2:1 winners. I was dropped near a diner on the eastern edge
of Ipatovo, and gave the driver a little card with a photograph of Our Lady of
Fatima, and my email address.

Further on i saw for the first time a large
grey raptor, probably a Pallid harrier or close relative, known locally as a
‘steppe eagle’. After not-a-very-long walk, just as a raincloud approached in
the early evening i made the acquaintance of a farmer by the side of the road. With
the onset of a thunder storm he bade me go to his house for a cup of coffee,
which was great, and i chatted to his wife while he carried on tending his cattle
in the rain. Then i was all set to be off again, but he phoned home to say that
friends had been invited over for drinks, so i had to stay for the evening and
overnight! With another couple, neighbours of theirs, we enjoyed some nice food
and had a very Russian, most enjoyable vodka-fuelled soiree, conversation
largely revolving around my photos from the walk. I got up very early (as did
everyone else in the house), watched an interesting documentary about the Arctic,
and a soviet-era ice hockey cartoon over breakfast, then set off again, leaving
the Russian book of prayers to Our Lady which i’d been given in Ukraine, and
promising to send a postcard.

[1] Under normal rules of scientific nomenclature, this
one should have been called ‘Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever’, but superpower
politics played a part in the 1973 decision to adopt the ‘Crimean-Congo’
arrangement.

[2] Birthplace of Solzhenitsyn, as
well as two General Secretaries of the communist party of the soviet union:
Yuri Andropov (1982-84) and Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-91).

About Me

Hi, I'm James Bruce, a 41 year old chap from Bristol in England. I set off on 22 March 2013 from Blantyre, Scotland, with the aim of reaching Blantyre, Malawi, with God's help. I am raising money for Mary's Meals, the non-denominational charity that feeds children worldwide and helps them gain an education. I paid for all my expenses myself, thanks to a legacy from my late grandfather. If you would like to donate please call call 0800 698 1212 or visit www.marysmeals.org.uk.
I hope you will accompany me on this journey from wherever you are! God bless, James